Last Monday evening was the first lecture in the 2018-2019 series that I've been attending at Arizona State University's School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership. The speaker was Jonah Goldberg, the senior editor for the National Review and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Both of those organizations tend to be politically conservative so I wasn't sure what to expect from this speaker but, I could have listened to him for hours. The title of is talk was "Suicide of the West" which is also the title of his most recent book. He was a brilliant speaker who had a colorful and energetic way of illustrating his points. His topic was a good one to set the tone for this year's theme of "Polarization and Civic Disagreement" in society today.
9 comments:
That is nice to listen to someone who is a good speaker.
It takes a talented speaker to hold the audience attention throughout a lecture, sounds like your guy here knew his subject well Sharon ✨
The speaker and topic is top drawer. I need to hear an intellectual discussion of the state of our union, which has held me in a state of anxiety all year. Hope that the rest of the series is as interesting for you. Enjoy the week-end and celebrate life!
Good speakers make a big difference.
It is so good that he was a fine speaker even if you didn't agree with all that he said, Sharon!
It sounds like he was an effective speaker.
A good speaker is always nice to listen to.
How is the West committing suicide? I'll have to look up his book and read about his thesis. I gotta say, I have no affection for the Goldbergs since the Clinton/Lewinsky scandals (you may remember that Jonah's mother Lucianne advised Linda Tripp to record her conversations with Lewinsky, among other things, thereby accumulating evidence against Clinton). But I've read things by him since and although I don't share his political perspective he seems intelligent and thoughtful. I'm glad to hear he was an interesting speaker.
OK, just read about the book. From the summary I got it sounds like he's got a point -- that Western ideals are being threatened by polarization and identity politics. (I don't think that's necessarily a point uniquely his, though.) When I first read the title I thought he meant the West as in the western United States, not the West as in the western world. Ha!
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